Riverboat Queen

As I mentioned in my last blog , my wife Sophie and I had booked two tourist excursions in Fairbanks.  In the morning we toured Gold Dredge #8 and in the afternoon we embarked on a riverboat excursion on the sternwheeler

Discovery. The Discovery is not a historic sternwheeler, having been built specifically for the arduous task of hauling paying tourists 900 at a time. Still, how often do you get to hop on any sternwheeler let alone one hailing from Fairbanks,  Alaska?

The Discovery cruise is as well choreographed as a Disney production and delivers quite an entertaining show. Just a couple of minutes away from the dock and we're treated to a floatplane that 'just happened' to be doing touch and go's. They're even in radio communication with the pilot who gives a play by play of landing and taking off on water with a big ole' stern wheeler bearing down on you.

Next up, a dog kennel featuring the daughter of legendary musher Susan Butcher who won the Iditarod race from Anchorage to Nome 4 times before succumbing  to leukemia  in 2006 at age 51. Her daughter, Tekla, does a great job maintaining the family kennels and puts on a quick mushing demonstration with8 sled dogs pulling her at warp speed on a ATV.

Continuing down the river the guide points out the Alaska way of home construction- million dollar log homes to die for next to riverside shacks not fit to die in. Live and let live is the Alaska credo but even up here it's harder and harder to keep up with the Jones'. Rounding the corner what does appear but a little sleigh and eight tiny reindeer. Well, at least their grown up relatives the Caribou who just happened to be in the neighborhood  as the Discovery paddles by. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain who let them out of their pen - better to imagine they magically appeared after conquering the majestic  tundra to grace us with their presence.

Finally we get to the Chena  River Village supposedly representing an Athabascan village post introduction to the white man. So it's mainly log cabins and caches but the real Alaska Native guides, high school students earning some cash for college, do a nice job of talking about their culture and answering questions from the tourists. The village even has an old log

cabin post office where Tekla, of the aforementioned Butcher dog kennels is back on hand signing autographs and selling books to pay, not for college, but upkeep of all those dogs who will still need to be fed long after the tourists depart and the river freezes once more.

All in all they do a nice job with the Discovery and it's slow tour along the banks of the not so mighty Chena River  (it's been dammed upstream to help avoid flooding). It's actually rated as one of the top tours in Alaska and as long as you go in expecting a little of the Disney-like touch it's well worth the price of admission.